


Stories of the Second Self: Rumble ‘n The Wood

by John_Steiner



Series: Alter Idem [119]
Category: National Guard - Fandom, Trolljegeren | TrollHunter (2010), Urban Fantasy - Fandom, social justice - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:28:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22641853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Steiner/pseuds/John_Steiner
Summary: Doggedly chasing hints and clues about hate crimes, Jerrod chooses a particularly wintry night to check out sights related to the attack on his brother. Stopped by Officer Chaney, Jerrod has to be upfront to a fellow werewolf about what he's doing. Though, his incursion into an abandoned Cincinnati park will challenge Jerrod's already expanded view of what is possible in the age of Alter Idem.
Series: Alter Idem [119]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1618813





	Stories of the Second Self: Rumble ‘n The Wood

Cruising through Silverton went against Jerrod's own advice to his brother, Michael, but he had to in order to get answers. The police tape around the fast food joint where Mike was fatally stabbed had been removed, though Jerrod was sure he could still learn something there.

From the vision he undertook with Mark's friend, Miranda, Jerrod realized Mike had been chased to that locale. It took a few weeks to dare more visions, and eventually relive Mike's final moments, but through those Jerrod learned some things. Having willingly turned into a werewolf by the Ridgewood street pack three years ago, meant Mike gained senses that granted Jerrod more information than if he were visioning through other castes of people.

Getting no names from Mike's attackers, Jerrod at least learned their preferred hygiene products, and that was enough to work with. So, a couple weeks after snooping through the fast food restaurant Jerrod took to the streets of his own town, Norwood.

It was after work, but before the sun was up. Jerrod, still in his work clothes minus shoes, shifted. His tail came through the rear seam of his athletic underwear, a necessity for werewolves, and then through the opened rear zipper of his jeans.

He shirt became tight, as body mass transitioned from lower body to upper. Jerrod readjusted his belt, despite having two inch long claws extending and thick pads on his fingertips and palms. When it was all done, Jerrod stood upright on digitigrade feet in his bedroom. His muzzle stretched into his own view, and he flexed muscles connected to his ears. He gave his whole body a rotary shake starting from his head, to force out and unusual bunching of fur.

After, Jerrod pulled out the two Bodyguard bracers given to him by the Akron Community Coalition, but rather than put them on he placed them in pockets of something akin to saddlebags. What made them different from those used for horses is that they were fashioned for werewolves by werewolves and made of black nylon with reflective green and orange patches for easy sighting by traffic.

Putting it on, Jerrod was then ready to head out, locking his front door behind him. Leaving behind his motorcycle, Jerrod trotted out on all fours into freshly fallen deep snow. Remembering Mike's view of the 'Wood, Jerrod went to the places Mike had been the night he was killed.

Nosing through snow and sampling air resulted in scant few traces, but Jerrod did catch that armpit scent that Mike's memories warned him about. It was distant, maybe a couple miles, but Jerrod was able to gauge the direction. It was the park Mike said he and a girl went to that night.

Jerrod took up more of a gallop, as he made for the park from where the scent grew stronger with every stride. A few minutes into his run, Jerrod heard a pair of short bursts from a siren and another right after that, along with a flash of red and blue. He knew the drill, and came to a direct stop to stand upright and turned around.

The glare of street lights made it hard to see into the police car's windshield, but from the way the door opened Jerrod knew who had pulled him over. "Hey, Of'ficer Chaney."

Chaney looked around while walking toward Jerrod and waving him over. "Okay Jerrod, what's happening?"

Other cops would've immediately demand Jerrod change back, even if that meant barefoot in over eighteen inches of snow. But Chaney was a werewolf himself, and had long practice with speaking from a lupine mouth and throat.

"Doin' a little legwork, Sir," Jerrod replied in full Guardsman formality.

"Alright, cut that out," Chaney said with a grimace. "It's me you're talkin' to, and it's okay to call me Cole. Seriously, you were movin' at quite a clip."

There wasn't any point in lying, that Jerrod knew. "Heading o'er to Lindner P'ark. You know, close to...."

"Close to Silverton," Cole Chaney finished the correction. "Not far from where your little brother was attacked."

"Yeah," Jerrod's wolf head nodded while looking away, and then he faced Chaney again. "Doing w'hat your de'p'artment should get done."

"You mean bringing justice?" Chaney asked.

"Scouting out traces," Jerrod clarified, choosing words easier to pronounce. "W'hen I vind some'ting I'll call t'he tipf hotline."

"Uh-huh," Chaney nodded, not quite buying it, but not for any micro-expressions Jerrod revealed in his demeanor.

"Ser'riously," Jerrod said, raising his chin. "Where are t'hey in t'he case?"

"It takes time, Jerrod," Chaney scolded gently. "Trust the process. Yeah, the courts and the city council aren't exactly on our team, but there're guys like me on the force doin' what we can for you."

"Even your angel b'uddy you used to ride with?" Jerrod asked.

"Hey," Chaney leveled an index finger. "Yi's a good guy. He may not look like us, but he's on our side as much as anyone can be," and then Chaney himself seemed to catch something in the air. "Is that what's got your nose?"

For Jerrod, transformed, the scent carried better. "Yeah, z'hat's it. I ain't going to get into a f'ight iff I can hel'pf it."

"As a police officer," Chaney started up the official advisory, that he himself didn't like giving, "I do have to remind you that taking the law into your own hands is also a crime."

However, Jerrod had his turn to pick up hints in Chaney's subtler expressions, with a head cocked expression as he pointed out, "You had to cross t'hat line once."

From the way Chaney's jaw suddenly set, it was clear to Jerrod that Chaney's tongue also went firm. It was the canine way of showing protective aggression, though Chaney didn't growl or extend that tongue through his teeth.

"Yes, I know what fighting for family is like," Chaney admitted, "But I didn't look for that fight. We do have a Stand Your Ground Law."

"Useless," Jerrod spat with a bit of a growl and a snarling expression, "When t;he Werewol’f Wea'pon P'ossession Ordnance hangs o'er our heads like an axe."

"And that's why I'm saying avoid trouble," Chaney said in tacit agreement, and a less visible expression of permission, as he turned back to his patrol car. "Tell your family I said hi and I'm praying for them."

"Will do," Jerrod replied, standing in place watching.

Chaney got into his car and pulled around to drive in the opposite direction. Even in the way he drove, Chaney was admitting he knew Jerrod was still committed to this.

Having more than double human night vision and extra help from a blanket of winter white, Jerrod waited a full minute for Chaney's car to no longer be visible. Then, he dropped down quick and bounded hard to make up lost time.

The streets weren't the only hunting ground Jerrod prowled. Websites on the city's internet had chatter of other werewolves saying weird things went on at night in and around Norwood. Sometimes, someone would dismiss it all with mention of vampires possibly targeting werewolves. However, some descriptions of sounds couldn't be ignored.

Closing to within sight of Lindner Park, Jerrod started to hear something akin to a deep throaty grumble. Stopping, Jerrod pricked up his lupine ears with the intensity of a pointer dog. On hearing heavy thumps, Jerrod was reminded of the time he and other guardsmen had to deal with cannibal giants.

However, these steps weren't quite as heavy or as regular. In fact, Jerrod started to make out that, at times, the rhythm was closer to threes or fours. Struck by that fact, Jerrod tentatively advanced one paw at a time. Steam from his nostrils billowed out in rapid sharp puffs, as he sniffed at the air. The sound and body odor came from the same narrow cone of shifting air currents.

First, Jerrod looked around, and then he stood upright to take the two Bodyguards out to put on. The right side guard having a retractable blade instead of taser prongs, Jerrod had since noticed other differences.

The normal model included a built in flashlight, green laser light, and a body cam. However the unorthodox right-handed guard traded the flashlight for a UVC light, while the camera and laser pointer were removed entirely for more battery space to extend the blade with force. Both gloves lacked fingers above the knuckle, so that human or therianthrope, a hand could both fit and hold the glove firmly in place on the wrist.

Now armed above his own innate weaponry, Jerrod returned to all fours and trotted onto the park grounds. He initially scouted around the perimeter of the park, as per his combat training under Captain Gonzales. Jerrod mentally marked off where trails came out and got a better sense of park overall from the outside.

Only then did Jerrod venture into its more wooded areas. The grunting became more distinct, as he penetrated further. The park saw far less maintenance since before the days of federal occupation, and so reminded Jerrod of the relatively untamed woods outside his parents' home town. Except for broken bands of police tap, of course.

That's what caught Jerrod up short, and with seeing the many broken branches all over. The clearing he came to had no signs of violence to anything other than trees, but that armpit stink completely filled up Jerrod's canine nose, causing him to snort it out.

Then the random steps of the thing stopped in the distance. What followed was a tumbling gate of more frequent steps right in Jerrod's direction. Heavy cracks and bending groans of tree trunks and larger branches sized up the thing for Jerrod.

It pounded into view for Jerrod, where his lupine jaw dropped. The creature was almost nine feet tall, but way thicker in body and limbs than any young giant at that size. It had excessive body hair over a mottled gray skin, and the face was far removed from human or hominid.

The nose had no bridge or apex, something like an ape, but with next to no separation from upper lip and the nostrils. A grimacing mouth showed more teeth than humans, but with two canines curving up like boar tusks. Its sideways set ears resembled that of a pig or boar. Hair on its head also looked more like a wild boar. The first of six small horns stabbed up from the hairline over the eyes, with the second and third pairs successive spaced wider and further up a slopping forehead. Set deep under protruding brows, its glaring eyes showed large light brown irises with no white sclera around them.

Jerrod knew this thing hadn't been human, though it smelled close to one. Extending the blade, Jerrod growled as fur and hair on his head and around his neck rose. He held his tail high behind him out of reflex and dropped in his stance as if he were a movie velociraptor ready to pounce.

The thing gave off something between a scream and a roar, and then brought up its fists to beat its chest in alternating rhythm. It dropped back down on its knuckles to roar again and thrash at the ground.

Pacing sideways on his digitigrade feet, Jerrod kept his left Bodyguard up toward the hulking brute, but his right drawn back to strike. His teeth were fully revealed under a high arcing snarl of lips. Jerrod consciously kept both his ears flat to present full offensive aggression, as his own grow reverberated deep in his chest. "Come on, mot'her f'fucker!"

Something in the sky drew a fleeting glimpse from Jerrod, where he noticed the sky seeming a lighter shade of dark than before. Not daring to let himself be distracted, Jerrod kept his steely predatory gaze on the massive monster confronting him. He snapped viciously at the air and took a couple advancing steps, his tail stiff and high.

It charged him. Ready to dart sideways, Jerrod did so while throwing a full upper-body powered swipe with the wrist blade, scoring a deep swath through warty gray skin. The creature yelped at the injury, but wheeled around on discovering it missed, and pounded the group furiously.

Noticing the blood smeared over the blade, Jerrod returned his stare to the apish boar beast. Before his eyes, Jerrod saw just how fast the thing could heal, as its wound was already closing with little bleeding. It went for one of the trees nearby, breaking branches off and bending it over by the trunk. Jerrod was sure it was a display, and was immediately reminded of a gorilla.

Predawn light became more noticeable, and this time the monster itself seemed to realize it. It searched around, Jerrod guessed for escape routes, and then bounded off, sometimes on all fours and sometimes on two legs.

Having a belated thought, Jerrod considered the UVC light and turned it on while given chase, also in an upright run. The ultraviolet light played on the skin, but Jerrod saw no burning. Though, he seemed to catch a subtler change in the mottled gray skin, as if it were growing hard.

A massive hand swatted at where the UVC light touched the brute, leading Jerrod to see it was a weakness of some sort. He'd need to poke around online later, and maybe fish up some mythology research when he got home. For now, he didn't want to pursue the monstrous thing into whatever it considered its home, and he let it escape.

Blue returned to the sky from the long winter night, and the sun would be up soon, so Jerrod resumed wandering the park in search of other traces where this thing had been stomping about.

Sooner or later, Jerrod had to find a way to convince people this thing was real and running around. Mike was sure it was part of why Silverton residents were able to chase him out of Norwood into their town and corner him. Yet, without proof this was all just a Bigfoot story, and nobody would buy it, even in the age of Alter Idem.


End file.
